Second
City Television (SCTV) was a popular comedy television show
originating from Canada that ran in the late 1970s and early 1980s
in a variety of incarnations. Pulling much of its talent and ideas
from the Chicago and Toronto Second City comedy venues, the show
became an important pipeline for comedians, especially Canadians,
into the mainstream of the U.S. entertainment market. Popular performers
who moved from SCTV into U.S. television and movies include John
Candy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin,
Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Robin Duke, Tony Rosato, Joe Flaherty,
and Eugene Levy. Their training in live improvisational comedy has
meant that they continue to appear in a variety of capacities, but
primarily as writers and performers.

SCTV's
early opening credit sequence set the tone for the show. As the
announcer says, "SCTV now begins its programming day," a number
of television sets are thrown out of an apartment building's windows,
smashing on the pavement below. Using impersonations of well-known
celebrities and ongoing original characters, SCTV presented
a parody of every aspect of television, including programs, advertising,
news, and network executives. In effect, SCTV was a cross
between a spoof of television and a loose parodic soap opera about
the running of the fictional Melonville television station. The
station's personnel included the owner Guy Caballero (Flaherty),
the station manager, Moe Green (Ramis), to be replaced by Edith
Prickley (Martin), whose sister Enda Boil (also Martin) advertised
her Organ Emporium with husband Tex (Thomas), in a parody of cheap
late-night commercials. Other recurring figures were the bon vivant
and itinerant host Johnny LaRue (Candy) and the endearingly inept
Ed Grimley (Short). Over the years, the SCTV programming
line-up included the local news, read by Floyd Robertson (Flaherty)
and Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy), "Sunrise Semester," "Fishin' Musician,"
and "The Sammy Maudlin Show," hosted by Maudlin (Flaherty) and his
sidekick William B (Candy), and with regular guests appearances
from Bobby Bittman (Levy) and Lola Heatherton (O'Hara). Other spoofs
include Yosh and Stan Shmenge's polka show (Levy and Candy), Count
Floyd's "Monster Chiller Horror Theatre," whose host was played
by the news anchor Floyd Robertson (Flaherty), the ersatz children's
show "Captain Combat" (Thomas), "Farm Film Report" (Flaherty and
Candy), and the improvised editorials of Bob and Doug Mackenzie's
"Great White North" (Moranis and Thomas).

SCTV's
trademark was the use of complex intertextual references to produce
original hybrid comic sketches. A parody of The Godfather
(Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) becomes a story of the Mafia-like operations
of television networks. "Play it Again, Bob" takes Play
it Again, Sam (Woody Allen, 1972) and pairs Woody Allen (Moranis)
with Bob Hope (Thomas). Brooke Shields (O'Hara) and Dustin Hoffman
(Martin) are guests on the "Farm Film Report," where they "blow
up real good." In the station owner's attempt to capture a youth
audience, SCTV tried to mimic Saturday Night Live,
with guest host Earl Camembert, a ridiculously over-enthusiastic
studio audience, and set-ups based around humorless references to
drug use. SCTV's continual use of mise en abyme devices
produced an intricate, layered text, in addition to a knowing fan
culture. Further, this program, with its markedly satirical view
of television and North American culture in general, is an important
contribution to the notion that Canadian humour is ironic, self-deprecatory
and parodic.

The
show's history begins in 1976, when Andrew Alexander, Len Stuart
and Bernie Sahlins produced the first half-hour episodes, called
Second City Television for Global Television Network in Toronto,
where it ran for two seasons. Filmways Productions acquired the
syndication rights for the U.S. market in 1977.

A
deal was struck in 1979 with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
(CBC) and Allarcom Ltd. in which the show would move to Edmonton
for broadcast on the national CBC network. In 1981, NBC bought the
program, shifted it to a ninety-minute format and moved the show
back to Toronto. At NBC, it became part of the "Late Night Comedy
Wars" between the re-named SCTV Network 90 on Fridays from
12:30 A.M. to 2:00 A.M., ABC's Fridays on the same night
from 12:30 A.M. to 1:30 A.M., and NBC's Saturday Night Live.
When NBC did not renew SCTV Network 90 in 1983, Cinemax took
it over. Over the years, SCTV produced 72 half-hour shows, 42 90-minute
shows, and 18 45-minute shows, as well as numerous spin-offs and
specials. With thirteen Emmy nominations, SCTV won two for
best writing. The show has since been re-edited and repackaged into
a half-hour "best of" format for syndication.